2004: Smoke & Shadows by @tanyahuff.bsky.social. Spinoff of Huff's Blood procedurals; urban fantasy with alternating touches of dark & humour. Gay protag, set in the realm of mid-low budget Vancouver SFF production. Hugely fun & Tony was my favourite character from the blood books anyway.

2005: Cagebird by Karin Lowachee. Book 3 in the Warchild series. Imprisoned (queer) space pirate Yuri pressed into spying by black ops team. A lot of interesting, nuanced stuff on trauma & trust; also just an A+ space opera. Hugely underrated. Whole series has been reissued & new books forthcoming!